Blackbox Marketing Book Guide

BLACKBOX MARKETING 2010

PRESENTS:

Blackbox Marketing Book 2011
Written by Dave Sherwin.
socialmarketingblackbox.com

Entrepreneur And Internet Marketer.

Dave Sherwin is an online marketer and founder of the Social Marketing
Blackbox, a lead generating and prospect management tool for
independent marketers.

Follow Dave on Twitter at: twitter.com/escapethematrix


Legal stuff:

This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international,
federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights.

Please note that much of this publication is based on personal experience. Although the authors and
publisher have made every reasonable attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this e-
book, they assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, you should use this information as you
see ﬁt, and at your own risk. Your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the examples
illustrated here; in fact, itʼs likely that they wonʼt be the same, and you should adjust your use of the
information and recommendations accordingly.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their
respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of
these terms.

Finally, use the grey matter between your ears (your brain!). Nothing in this Guide is intended to replace
common sense, legal, medical or other professional advice, and is meant to inform and entertain the
reader.

Copyright © 2011 Escape The Matrix LLC. All rights reserved worldwide.


Table of contents
Blackbox Marketing! 2
What is Blackbox Marketing! 2

“The Blacklist.” The Ultimate, Current, Kick-Butt List Of Everything
You Have To Do To Create Success Online In 2011.! 5
On-going Tasks:! 6

Niche Research! 6

Keyword Research! 7

Identify The Major Keyword For the Home Page (Buy keyword rich
domain)! 7

Copy Writing! 8
Style Guide! 8

Analytics! 9

Creating A Content Factory! 9

Blogging! 10

Simple But Effective Blog Marketing Strategy! 13

Keyword research! 13

RSS Feeds! 15

Pinging: Hello World!! 16

Content Marketing! 19
http://scribd.com Video! 20

Creating A Winning Video ! 20


What type of video camera should I get?! 20

What Other Equipment Do I Need?! 21

Is there any other equipment I need?! 21

I donʼt have a digital camera, and I donʼt have the money to buy one!! 21

What Software?! 21

OK, NOW WHAT???! 21

How Do I Upload It To The Internet?! 22

Now JUST DO IT!! 22

Social Bookmarking! 23
Keyword Research is “Key”! 23

On-Page SEO! 24

The Anatomy of a Bookmark! 25

Title:! 25

Address! 25

Description! 25

Tags! 25

Category! 25

Why Social Bookmarking is so Powerful! 25

Tips & Tricks! 26

Twitter! 27
The Value Of A Network! 27

Getting Started With Twitter.com! 29


User name squatting is against the Twitter Rules! 30

Fill Out A Complete, Compelling Proﬁle! 32

Add A Cool Background! 33

How to get followers! 34

1. Leverage Other Proﬁles! 35

2. Tweet and Tweet Often - But Create Space for Reactions! 35

3. Be Conversational! 35

4. Provide Value! 36

5. Tweet in Peak Times! 36

Other Strategies For Increasing Your Follower Base! 36

Twitter Is A Micro-Blog! 38

So How Does It Work?! 39

A Cool Tool To Aid Your Twitter Marketing! 40

Tweetdeck! 41

Give Your Followers Value! 42

Tweets: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly!! 43

Methods Of Providing Valued Tweets! 45

How Often Should I Tweet?! 46

When is the best time to tweet?! 46

Tweetlater Pro! 47

Tweetlater Recommended Settings! 49

Schedule Tweets! 50


Link Your Twitter And Facebook Accounts! 52

Conclusion! 53


Blackbox Marketing
What is Blackbox Marketing

Alchemy: The medieval quest for turning base metals into Gold. What a great concept.
Canʼt you just picture these misguided but hard working “scientists” bending over their
bubbling vats, dumping lead, copper, and who knows what else into their concoctions,
hoping and praying to create gold?

Unfortunately, their science was completely wrong, and we now know that Gold is an
element, and canʼt be created.

The Blackbox principle is different, but has similarities to the concept of Alchemy. Itʼs
based on inputs and outputs, like so:

But the difference is, you can put in an input, and without understanding how it works or
what was done inside the Blackbox, you get an output greater than your input!

Internet marketing can be that way. For example, sales reps used to go out there
prospecting, in the hopes to give a presentation to a single person. But the internet
allows that same rep to create a video of their sales pitch, put it online, and get dozens,
hundreds, even thousands of views, from an activity they did one time!

Blackbox Marketing is all about creating your own “Black Box,” or system, that you can
put input in one side, and get a much greater return on the other side. Our system, the
Social Marketing Blackbox, is based on this principle, and was built to actually be the
“Blackbox” for marketers, so that they could simply ask for something to be done, and
Voila!- it gets done, without them knowing who or how it got done.

And of course, I would love for you to check out our system and see how it can help you
in your business. But whether you use our system or not, when you read this book you

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will get a great understanding of some of the exact principles and methods that are
working right now to create six ﬁgure websites within just a few months!

For example, hereʼs a screen shot of my analytics account, for a site that is exactly six
months old:

As you can see, this website generated $13,812.55 in the last 30 days. And six months

ago it didnʼt even exist! This is the miracle of the internet. And hereʼs the process I used
to create this income from nothing:
1. I decided to set up a new site, selling a health supplement.
2. I researched the market for a popular product that was trending up.
3. I researched the competitive landscape of the product (not to ﬁnd an “unexploited
niche,” rather to make sure it was hyper competitive!)
4. I found a supplier.
5. I built a website.
6. I applied the Blackbox Marketing philosophies and tools I am about to teach you.

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Now, hereʼs a fact most “guruʼs” will never tell you. The process above was extremely
demanding, and involved a four letter word: WORK.

For the ﬁrst 60 days of this process, there were MANY days when I got up early in the
morning and went to bed late at night while working on the six steps above. It was NOT
easy.

And while it wasnʼt easy, and there were even days I got up at 5 AM and went to bed at
11 PM, just to get up and do it again, the results are incredible. Today, this site is truly
on autopilot, and I pay a full time assistant to handle everything, at a cost of $400 per
month.

Thatʼs the dream of internet marketing. But too few people ever realize it, because they
are always looking for short cuts or the “easy way.” In the end, success can come
quickly, but itʼs important to understand the amount of true time and effort thatʼs
demanded in the beginning.

I hope that through this book, I can help you achieve similar results through a correct
understanding and implementation of the most current, effective marketing methods.

But I also realize there may be questions not answered in this guide, or things that may
not be fully explained, so I have set up a Facebook page and promise to answer any
questions you have quickly, as well as post additional videos etc:

Facebook.com/escapethematrix

So letʼs get started...

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“The Blacklist.” The Ultimate, Current, Kick-Butt List
Of Everything You Have To Do To Create Success
Online In 2011.
When you set up a new site, it is critical that everything is done correctly. There are two
major elements of site creation. In some ways, you are creating the site for two different
“people:”

-Google
-Your Customers

If Google (and when I say Google, I really mean all search engines) doesnʼt like your
site, they wonʼt show it to your prospects. If your prospect arrives and doesnʼt like your
site, they wonʼt buy. So both Google and your prospect must be impressed with your
site.

Following is the “Blacklist,” my checklist of major items you need to create to satisfy
both Google and your customer. I hope you understand that this was developed over
the course of the last six years of my life, and I hope you donʼt take it lightly. I have paid
the price in blood, sweat, tears, money, frustration, and much failure to finally arrive at
this list, which flat out works.

But... if I was to write a complete explanation of every item, this book would be WAY too
long. So what Iʼm going to do is provide the list first, then provide some notes on major
items. But you will still need to do additional research on many of the items to get a
complete understanding. We have many courses available with our free subscription to
the Social Marketing Blackbox, I invite you to go there to get entire courses on all these
topics.

Niche Research (find a niche/ product)
Keyword research
Identify major keyword for home page
Buy a Keyword rich URL (I recommend omnis.com for this)
Identify 4-6 secondary keywords for sub-pages
Copy Writing
Style Guide
Blog (in this format: url.com/blog, or if you prefer blog.url.com)
Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Disclaimer pages
Contact Form

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About Us
Robots.txt
Sitemap.xml
RSS Feed
Keyword Use:
" Title once and near beginning
" Meta description once and near beginning
" keyword once and near beginning
" H1 once and near the beginning
" H2 once and near the beginning
" Al tag of an image once and all other image alt tags should just explain what the
image is about
" Keyword should be bolded once and italicized once as well
Add Analytics
4-6 pages of 100% unique and original content
Create and distribute Press Release
Create Alias Proﬁle
Write and distribute articles, starting with primary keywords and moving down list
Social Bookmark the site
RSS Submission
Ping your site and blog posts
Create and post videos
Ping FM (If you are a Social Marketing Blackbox Member, we do this for you as the
PingIt! tool)

On-going Tasks:

Check Current Rankings monthly, or twice per month at most.
Create Article Content and post at least weekly, more often if possible.
Ping your content and blog posts
Ping RSS Accounts
Bookmark RSS Accounts
RSS Submissions
Social Bookmarks on all new content
Video marketing
Blog daily if possible, weekly minimum

Niche Research

I wonʼt spend a lot of time on this, because everybody has such different circumstances
and interests. But hereʼs a few thoughts on it that I think are very relevant:

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✓ Donʼt fall for the “ﬁnd an unexploited niche” philosophy. Thereʼs no such thing. And if
there is, it wonʼt last. Rather, donʼt be afraid of existing, competitive markets. If you do
the Checklist right, you can compete with anybody.
✓ You DO NOT have to “love what you sell.” This is a myth. As a matter of fact, too
many people sell things that they “love,” and go broke doing it. Thereʼs three things that
are critical to me in determining a product: It has to be trending up, it has to work, and it
has to sell. Look for those three things as you do your research.

Keyword Research

Thereʼs tons of great information available about keyword research in the public
domain, so I wonʼt dive deep on this subject, but hereʼs a couple of tools that I
recommend:

-Google External Keyword Tool (Google it!)
-semrush.com
-Market Samurai. This is a paid tool. If you donʼt have it, but are a Blackbox member,
you can simply give us the major keyword and we will do the research for you. It will use
3 of your Personal Webmaster hours.

Identify The Major Keyword For the Home Page (Buy keyword rich domain)

The biggest mistake you can possibly make is to try to compete with the wrong URL.
For example, if the keyword I decide on is “triathlon gear,” I want to buy:

triathlongear.com

If thatʼs not available, Iʼll try something like:

triathlongear411.com or
triathlon-gear.com or
triathlongeartips.com or
triathlongear911.com...

But I WONʼT buy

thecooltrisite.com or ANYTHING other than a URL that contains my EXACT keywords,
in the exact order people search for them in! I canʼt make this point strong enough. If
you donʼt buy a URL with your exact keyword in it, you are wasting your time. If you
have already made this mistake, start over!

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Copy Writing
For this, I recommend a simple technique I call “Kitchen Table Copywriting.” Remember
when I told you the hours I put into a new site? Well, this is where a LOT of them come
from. For some websites, the process is quicker than others. But no matter how long it
takes, stick with the process until you have copy you are proud of!

1. Do a search for your primary keyterm.
2. Identify the top 5-10 competitors who are selling product in your niche.
3. While on their website, go to the file menu of your browser and hit “Print.” You may
want to set your printer to draft mode so you donʼt waste all your color ink!.
4. Print off every page of your competitors sites.
5. Lay out all the pages on your kitchen table, or on a floor if you donʼt have room.
6. Grab a marker, and circle all the graphical elements that you like. Everything from
logos, to credibility icons, to testimonial images etc.
7. With a highlighter, read every word of every page and hi-lite all the written elements
that you like.
8. From the best headline ideas, create your own headline, including your keyword early
in the first sentence.
9. From the best sub-headlines, create your own sub-headline
10. From the best bullet points, create your own, original bullets
11. Write out the rest of the copy for your website, based on a combination of the great
inspiration you get from your competitors, in conjunction with your own products
selling points and unique advantages.

Itʼs really easy to write out these instructions, but itʼs time consuming and a lot of work
to implement it. Be patient. Be willing to re-visit it. Donʼt worry if it takes you a week.
This work will pay you big dividends if you do it right!

Style Guide

A style guide is something you hire a graphic designer to do. This is a critical part of the
process, as most websites out there look too “off the shelf,” and if they do, they wonʼt
convert. A Style Guide contains the following elements:

✓ Logo
✓ Fonts (Headline and body fonts, 2 maximum fonts per site)
✓ Major color
✓ Complimentary colors

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✓ Site elements such as buy boxes, optin boxes, product images etc.

You can download a copy of an exact Style Guide in the “Downloads” section of the
Social Marketing Blackbox. (Another blatant pitch, I know, but there is a free
membership that allows you access to this)

Use the graphical elements you identiﬁed in your kitchen table copywriting process as
examples to give your designer, to help them understand what you like and donʼt like.

BLACKBOX MEMBERS: If you want to use your Personal Webmaster hours to get a
style guide created, it typically takes about 7 hours.

Analytics

I highly recommend Google Analytics. I know there are more sophisticated programs
out there, but for the vast majority of websites Google analytics is free, easy to install,
and gives tons of great information.

BLACKBOX MEMBERS: It usually takes 30 minutes or less of your Personal
Webmaster hours for us to install Google Analytics on any of your websites.

Creating A Content Factory

It is important to understand the importance of content on the internet. This content
usually starts in the form of an article, but the message of the article can be converted
into a Video, Tweet, Status Update, Press Release, Hubpage, Squidoo lense, etc.

There are two types of content, “A” content and “B” content. “Aʼ content are those
articles or videos that you spend a decent amount of effort producing, and that youʼre
proud of, and that build your brand, get you fans and followers, and establish you as an
expert in your niche.

“B” content is content that may be spun, or is written by off-shore writers, and is
distributed widely with the sole purpose of link building.

I recommend you focus your time creating “A” content and distributing it ﬁrst to
Ezinearticles, then re-write it and post it to Hubpages.com and re-write it again and post
to Squidoo.com. There is a section following about content marketing that will give more
insight into this, and there is also a free course available in the Social Marketing
Blackbox called “Article Marketing” that I highly recommend you watch to get a full
understanding of the premise.

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Blogging

Blogging is critical to your success. It is absolutely imperative that you have a
Wordpress blog on your website, and blog as often as possible. Hereʼs why:

✓ Blogging creates new content on your website, and Google loves sites that have new
content added on a regular basis.
✓ Blog posts attract “long tail” traffic.
✓ Blogging is a great habit for you, and forces you to become an expert in your niche
✓ It allows you an easy way to communicate new information to your prospects and
customers
✓ By creating keyword rich anchor text links to other pages on your blog, you raise the
PR (Page Rank) of those pages, and increase the authority of your over-all site. For
example, if the site is about “triathlon gear,” and a sentence in your blog says something
like:

... this particular item of triathlon gear is inexpensive...

And the words “triathlon gear” links to the page on your site that sells the particular item
you are blogging about.

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in
blogging:

1. Be patient. Blogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term
vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a
readership.

3. Be an 'expert'. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the "go-to" blogger on
that topic.

5. Do not bore your readers. Keep your posts short, yet informative. Use images
whenever you can. Bullet points make it easier to read. Donʼt be afraid to use your
humor, knowledge, personality or whatever other personal asset you have to make it
interesting.

Here are 7 mistakes people make in blogging (taken from problogger.com)

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1. Bad architecture. Too many people go to the free blogging platforms to create a blog.
Yes it's easier, and cheaper, but it's also the difference between OWNING your blog,
and RENTING one. It is critical that you register your own domain, and build your blog
on wordpress software. Argue with me if you like, but very few of the worlds top
bloggers do it any other way. With a hosted Wordpress blog you have more control,
better SEO capabilities, and a vast array of plugins and widgets available.

2. Lack Of Focus. Too many bloggers don't take the time to identify their niche, and their
Tribe. The niche is the market category they want to compete in. Their Tribe is the group
of followers they are trying to build, whether it be customers, fans, donors, etc. It's
imperative that you take the time to identify exactly who you are blogging too. What are
their likes and dislikes? What are their concerns and fears? What are their hobbies,
interests, and desires? The better you relate to them, the more likely they will be to
frequent your blog and join your cause.

3. Lack of keyword research. This is a killer. Google, Live, and Yahoo are anxious to
send their trafﬁc to the best posts. The challenge is, they can only do this based on key
words their searchers are using. If you don't identify the keyterms your Tribe is
searching for, and optimize your blog for them, you are leaving money on the table. You
should have a primary term you want your blog to rank highly for, then a bunch of "long
tail" keyterms that each post is about. There is a very high rate of return on key word
research.

4. Writing Style. It is important to remember that you are writing to two distinct
"audiences." First of all, you are writing to your niche, and must engage, entertain,
educate, or supply whatever type of value you are striving to provide with your blog.
Secondly, you are writing to the search engines, and must include your keyterms in your
URL, ﬁrst sentence, and once or twice more if it makes sense. With practise, you can
easily create entries that satisfy both the Search Engines and your visitors.

5. Frequency. Most bloggers just don't blog often enough. Blogging daily is ideal, a few
time a week is acceptable, but consider once a week an absolute minimum. Any less
than this simply won't get the job done.

6. Capturing leads! Too many blogs just don't have any sort of lead capture! Giving
away a free report, book, or other offer is mandatory to making your blog a list building
machine!

7. Value proposition. Too many bloggers don't offer enough value in their posts. The
blog is too "salesy," or just too much about them. Remember, people don't care what

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you ate for dinner, where you went on vacation, or about the cute pictures of your dog.
Make sure every post gives value to your visitors!

The key is to overcome these blogging mistakes as early in your blogging career as
possible, so that the time you spend on your blog is rewarded with leads, branding, and
sales!

People ask me all the time how I got a number one Google ranking with my blog. And
as much as I'd love to say it's because of great content, or some special skill, I have to
admit that the biggest reason is simply time and consistency. And after coaching
hundreds of clients in blogging and social marketing, I have noticed something
interesting. No matter what their niche, how good a writer they are, or how pretty looking
their blog is, blog success always seems to come to those who post often, and for long
enough.

The challenge seems to be that first eight weeks. Most people drop within that period,
for the following reasons:

1. Reality. They thought blogging would be easy, fun, and profitable. It is, but not in the
first eight weeks (usually). So the "sales page motivation" wears off as soon as they
have to do something, and they give up. Obviously, the solution to this one is to simply
make a stronger commitment, and carry on!

2. "Death By Analytics." This is the crowd that spends more time looking at analytics
and results than actually blogging. Unfortunately, the results in the first eight weeks are
so tiny that it's easy to be fooled and drop out of the game because the reward just isn't
there. The key here is to invest all available time into working on the blog, posting
frequently, and having faith in the fact that over time your Tribe will find and support your
blog.

3. Lack Of Confidence. I have seen many people drop out because they just don't think
they can do it. They doubt their writing skills, technical ability, or offerings. The key,
again, is activity. There's nothing like doing a thing for getting good at doing a thing.
Having a good mentor or coach can really help this crowd as well.

4. Perfection-itis. This is a killer too. A lot of people just don't get enough content on their
blog because they want every post to be the Taj Mahal of blog posts. And while each
post should be of a reasonable quality, keep in mind they're blog posts, not submissions
for Nobel prizes in literature.

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In the end, average people who blog frequently, and for long enough, will have blog
success. And like any other worthy business endeavor, the reward will be greater than
the price.

1. Ideas:
Read content looking for concepts you can write about.
Read content looking for key points you can write about.
Create a list of potential articles:
• General ideas
• Keyword ideas
• Product ideas
• Business ideas
• Online marketing
• Personal Development ideas
etc...
2. How to get the creative juices ﬂowing:
• Google an idea from your brainstorming list. Quickly scan the results for good content.
• What concept did you recently learn that got YOU excited? (If you are excited about it,
you can be conﬁdent that others will be too)
• Review your keywords, is there something about the content of one of them that you
can write about?
• Visit other blogs
• Record your ideas! (computer, hand-held recorder, phone, etc...)
• Keep a blog notebook with you
• Journal your ideas (or check your journal/diary for ideas)
• Ask your kids for ideas, then “adultize” the content
3. Ask others in your niche what they MOST want to learn about.
4. Ask your market. Those whom you market to are always looking for solutions to
current problems they have.
5. Check current trends. Is there news sporting events or current events that are
causing a lot of buzz? How can you tie to the trend? How can you relate the things
that interest society to your article?

Simple But Effective Blog Marketing Strategy

It all starts with content. In this case, I researched the "Top 5" article submission sites.
That was something I knew my visitors are interested in. Here's how I went about
blogging it:

Keyword research

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First of all, I used google's keyword research tool at http://adwords.google.com. I
entered my keyword:

"article submission"

Out of the results, one stood out:

"article submission sites"

It was getting 880 average search results per month, and low competition. That makes it
a good "long tail" keyword to go after.

Step 2. Create Content

So now I create my content, starting with a headline that includes the keyterm:

Top Five Article Submission Sites

Step 3 Create blog post

Now I go to my blog and create the post, by entering the title, then writing the content. It
is important to include the keyterm in the ﬁrst sentence, and also bold it, (this gets more
search engine love!) and also include the keyterm in the URL. Make sure and also add
keyterm in your tags.

Step 4 Promote

Now that you have a blog post up, you need to let people know about it! Go to whatever
social networks you belong to, and promote your new page through bulletins, posting on
Walls, your status up-dates (Example: Just posted top 5 article submission sites on my
blog, check it out!) Also twitter it, and send an e-mail to your list, letting them know they
can ﬁnd fresh content at your blog.

Step 5 Check your stats!

Now log into your stat counter, and see how many people are visiting your blog! Don't
be discouraged if the number is low, if you are committed to the process, that number
will go up and up!

Step 6 Rinse and Repeat!

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Let your competitors do the stupid, ineffective "gimmicks" and junk that so many
marketers do. If you commit to this simple, free strategy, it will produce long term,
sustainable results!

RSS Feeds

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool useful for saving or retaining updated
information on websites that you frequently visit or websites that are your favorite. RSS
utilizes an XML code which scans continuously the content or subject matter of a certain
website in search for new information then transmits the information updates by way of
feeding the information to subscribers.

RSS feeds are generally being utilized in blogs or news sites, though any website
wanting to broadcast and publish information can use them. Once new information is
sent, it will contain a headline, a little bit of text, and either a rundown or a brief review of
the news or story. If you want to read further, you click on the link provided.

So as to accept RSS feeds, a feed reader is needed, called an aggregator. Aggregators
are widely and freely available online, and all that is needed is a bit of searching, you
will be able to locate a certain interface that best interest you. Whatís more, RSS feeds
can likewise be read and retrieved from cell phones and on PDAs.

Once you encounter upon a website that you want to add or insert to the aggregator, the
process can be done in two ways. Almost all sites offering an RSS feed displays an
ìRSSî or ìXMLî button in their homepage and with one click, it promptly adds that
particular feed to one ís aggregator. Some aggregators however, requires the need to
copy and then paste the URL of the feed into the program.

Whatever the method used, you can be certain that the feed will be accessible as soon
as you have inserted it, likewise, in just seconds, the next update can arrive. In the
event that you do not want to accept or take in updates, you may simply delete or erase
the feed from the aggregator.

Through e-mail subscriptions, you can receive newsletters. RSS feeds on the other
hand, can be more convenient in keeping up with newsletter updates since they are
prompt and available in an instant; you no longer have to wait for a scheduled time or
day to obtain a news summary, plus, these will never be detained by your spam ﬁlter.

Aggregators

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Aggregators are popular use of feeds, having several kinds. Web aggregators or portals
as they are sometimes called, create this view which is then made available in a Web
page. Also, Aggregators have been incorporated into e-mail patrons, users of desktops,
or dedicated and standalone software.

Offering a collection of special features, such as combining more than a few related
feeds in just a single view, hiding certain entries or statements that has been already
viewed, and classifying entries and feeds, the aggregator is a versatile component.

Why make a feed available?

You will have more viewers, since now, your viewers can conveniently see your site
without even going out and looking for that certain site. While at ﬁrst, it may seem
corrupt, it will actually enhance the visibility of your site; this is because users can easily
keep up or keep tract with your site, to allow them to view in a way that they want to; itís
more probable that guests are aware should something that is in their interest is
available or accessible on your site.

For instance, every month your website broadcasts a new feature. Having no feed, your
viewers will always have to keep in mind to go to your site in a certain time to see if they
discover something new; that is, if they can remember, and if they still have the time.
However, if you supply a feed for your viewers, they can just point to their aggregator
and it will instantly provide them a link along with a description of happenings or events
at your site immediately.

What format to choose?

Syndication is very confusing as it uses a lot of formats that can usually be come across
in the web. However, this can easily be solved as in general, syndicated libraries are
used by aggregators which conceptualize a particular format that a feed is in, in order
that they can utilize a certain syndication feed.

With this, whatever format to pick is just a matter of personal preference. RSS 1.0 is far
reaching, and practical should it be integrated into Semantic Web systems. RSS 2.0 is
very easy and simple create by hand. And atom is an IETF Standard, does it brings
constancy, stability and a natural and accepted community to support its usage.

Pinging: Hello World!

[16]

“Pinging” a site is the act of sending a packet of information to another server. The word
ping comes from the old sonar units in a submarine. Remember the pinging sound from
war movies as the sonar sends out an impulse, then reﬂects back to the submarine,
letting it know how far away an object is?
Modern Pinging is similar, in that when you write a post on your blog, nobody knows
about it unless you tell them, or unless you “Ping” relevant servers letting them know
thereʼs new content on your blog.
Luckily, this process is something you only have to go through one time, then from now
on every time you write a new post your Word Press blog will automatically ping the
servers, letting the world know you have fresh, new content on your blog!

The Secret Sauce

This list of Ping sites is a Blackbox Marketing “trade secret.” This is one of those things
we ask you to keep to yourself. This “under the hood” procedure you are about to
perform is something 95% of bloggers probably donʼt even do, and even if they do they
donʼt have this exact list we are about to provide.

Directions:

Set up your wordpress blog to automatically Ping all these sites every time you post.

BLACKBOX MEMBERS: You can use the Personal Webmaster tool to have this done
on any of your blogs. It will use about 20 minutes of your available monthly hours.

Ping Sites:

http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

[17]

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

Again, once you have done this Word Press will automatically ping ALL of these
services every time you hit “Publish

[18]

Content Marketing

Content sharing is simply a way you can add value to the world wide web, and the
higher the value of your content, the more the web will pay you back! For example, if
you are in a company that markets antioxidants, and you publish a great article on how
antioxidants can improve health, and you post your article where people can access it
for free, with a link back to your site, some of the people that read your article will click
on your link, and voila!, you have a free visitor to your site!

The key word is value. The better your content, the more likely it is to get you leads. And
you donʼt have to be a great writer, sometimes all you have to do is be the aggregator,
finding great content and organizing it into a usable format online.

Below is a listing of different types of sites where you can post content. You donʼt have
to use all of them, as a matter of fact you shouldnʼt, it would be too time consuming to
try to master all of them. Have a quick look at each site, then choose just one or two
that you can easily post content to, whether itʼs a presentation you have access to, an
article you wrote, or a video. Whatever content you have or can create, put it online and
share it with the world, and you can get web traffic for years to come- free!

Article and content sites

http://hubpages.com Great place to create free web-sites, about anything you want!
Generates free traffic, and even pays you per click when people click on the Google ads
on your sites. Adding a few “hubs” a month can really add to the leads you generate.
See the “hubpages” discussion board in the Facebook Lighthouse marketing Group for
examples of fellow marketers hubs.

http://squidoo.com Another great resource that allows you to create “lenses”, or simple one
page web-sites that get traffic.

http://ezinearticles.com The webs number one article directory. Post articles between
400-800 words, with links in the “resource box” back to the site of your choice.
Remember, quality content gets read! If you choose article marketing as a strategy, be
prepared to post articles on a regular basis, at least monthly.

Multipurpose

[19]

The following sites allow you to post a variety of different types of content. Have a quick
look at each, and choose one or two to post some content to.

http://gather.com"
http://freewebs.com"
http://flixya.com"
http://epinions.com"
http://answers.yahoo.com"
http://kaboodle.com"
http://www.slideshare.net/
http://scribd.com

Video

Itʼs no secret that video has become huge online. The average video posted to the
internet is only about 2 minutes long. Most are simply entertaining, but there is a
growing trend called “edutainment,” videos that are fun and educational in nature.

Video ideas:

 Create a brief video that would provide value to your target audience.
 “How To”
 Product videos
 Informational

You can also create a simple video on your PC using Camtasia. You can either record a
power point presentation, or screenshots of your desktop.

So post away! Whether you post videos you create, or blog entries, or articles, all of
these things can give links back to your site, getting you long term leads and building
credibility in the marketplace!

Creating A Winning Video
What type of video camera should I get?

Well, first of all you donʼt necessarily even NEED a camera, because videos can be
created from powerpoint presentations and screen recordings too. But if you want to
record “live action” a flip camera is inexpensive and convenient.

[20]

What Other Equipment Do I Need?

A tripod is an inexpensive purchase that makes a world of difference in your video
quality. And you obviously need a computer .

Is there any other equipment I need?

Only if youʼre going to get fancy, in which case you may get an inexpensive green
screen. Youʼll see examples of this in some of the videos.

I donʼt have a digital camera, and I donʼt have the money to buy one!

Can you take simple video on your camera and import it?
Do you have a digital still camera that allows you to record video?
How about a video cam on your computer?
And again, you can simply record whatʼs on your screen and make great video too.

What Software?

Some popular applications are:

Adobe Premiere Pro " (PC, Advanced),
iMovie " " " " (Mac, Beginner),
Final Cut Express " " (Mac, Intermediate),
Screen Flow" " " (Mac, Intermediate),
Windows Movie Maker " (Windows, Beginner),
Sony Vegas Pro " " (Windows, Intermediate),
Camtasia "" " " (Windows, Intermediate).

OK, NOW WHAT???

Ask yourself the following questions and WRITE DOWN the answers:

1. What is the desired outcome of your video?
2. What is your story? Remember, FACTS TELL BUT STORIES SELL! Some great
questions to ask yourself:
" " -How will you tell it?
" " -Will you be in front of the camera?
" " -Will you be behind it?
" " -Will it be presented like a documentary?
" " -Will you do a dream sequence? Your imagination is the only limit!

[21]

4. Who will be in it?
5. Where will your characters be?
6. Whatʼs the geographic location? Inside or outside? In the forest or the city?
7. Can you create a simple story board for it? If not, thatʼs OK, maybe thatʼs getting too
fancy for a short online video. But if you can easily do it, it will help.

How Do I Upload It To The Internet?

Chances are your editing software has a “Publish to Youtube,” and or “Publish to
Facebook” feature. These are the two most important places to post your video, but you
can also get fancy and post it to all the free video sites to get more exposure and links
back to your website.

Now JUST DO IT!

Create videos on a regular basis as part of your video marketing MO.

Here is a good/better/best strategy:

1.Good. Create and publish one video a month. ANYBODY can do this, even on
the tightest schedule. Even once a month will, over time, get you results!

2.Better. Create and publish at least one video per week. This will get you
fantastic results over time.

3.Best. Create more than one a week, one a day if possible! This will put your
marketing on overdrive, creating huge “link love” back to your site, getting you
lots of natural trafﬁc, and keeping you in the “zone” of marketing!

Good luck, and may the force be with you!

[22]

Social Bookmarking
A bookmark (also known as a “favorite” or “internet shortcut”) is a way for an Internet
user to save the URLs of their favorite webpages so they can access them later on with
ease. All popular web browsers have bookmarking functionality.

Social bookmarking is a way for people to organize, search, and share bookmarks.
Rather than the data being saved locally on the user's PC, it's stored in a database
hosted by the social bookmarking website, so it can be accessed from any computer,
anywhere in the world.

Typically the bookmarks are “public” (although often can be set as “private”), so that
users can see what webpages are popular amongst others. The more popular a
bookmark is, the more visibility it has on the bookmarking site, usually featured on a
“popular bookmarks” or “top bookmarks” page.
Internet Marketers commonly use social bookmarking as a method to boost their search
engine rankings. Each time a bookmark is created, it generates a backlink to the
webpage being bookmarked, which uses the bookmark “title” as anchor text. This
effectively tells the search engines what the webpage is all about and indicates its
popularity.

The more accounts that bookmark or “vote” for the same webpage, the more backlinks,
and the more likelihood that it will be featured on the “popular bookmarks” page.

The “popular bookmarks” pages typically have high PageRank (PR) which means
that bookmarks featured on these pages will be very effective in improving the search
engine rankings of their respective webpages.

Keyword Research is “Key”
The ﬁrst (and most important thing) we need to do before running off and going social
bookmarking crazy, is to make sure we know what keywords (search engine phrases)
we are targeting in our SEO campaign.

It's way more effective SEO-wise if the bookmark title is a keyword that you know has a
high volume of searches and low competition, than if it's just a phrase that you think
people may be searching for without doing any research.

We're not going to go into all the intricacies of keyword research, as it's outside the
scope of this document, but we will give a brief overview. And again, we can't stress
enough how important it is.

[23]

Let's use the popular niche “dog training” as an example.

1. We already have a website about dog training with many pages filled with
interesting and unique content.
2. We open the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (there are many other tools that
use this data and are easier to use, but this is the best 'free' option).
3. We search for: dog training
4. We determine that the related keyword “german shepherd training” is more specific
and has adequate traffic (monthly searches).
5. We then go to Google.com and search for “german shepherd training” (in quotes).

-The reason [Exact] Match Type is used is because it will return targeted data for the
exact phrase, rather than Broad which could include any order or placement of the
words. When doing keyword research we always use [Exact] to get the most accurate
traffic and competition estimates.
-Typically anything over 1,000 monthly searches is considered “adequate.”
-The reason we use “quotes” is to give us the number of competing sites containing the
exact keyword and not some random variation.
-Usually less than 100,000 is considered “good” however for the purposes of this
example let's assume we're happy with 166,000. Notice the 166,000 results, that's our
competition.

6. Now we've done our keyword researching and can proceed to the next step...On-
Page SEO.

On-Page SEO
The URL for this example is:

http://dogobedienceadvice.com/german-shepherd-training.php

We've highlighted the important sections. Notice that:
-The page title (at the very top, in the browser tab) includes our keyword.
-The URL itself uses our keyword, with hyphens representing spaces
between words.
-The top of the page uses a <H1> HTML tag to display our keyword in large
-This is a randomly chosen page for example only and is not affiliated with the author.
-The page content includes our keyword randomly dispersed throughout. Anywhere
between 2-6% density is considered ideal.
Now let's look at the actual Google result for this page. Notice that the description
contains our keyword. Google is nice enough to highlight it for us too ;)

[24]

-Ideally the exact keyword “german shepherd training” would appear in the content, but
it's still beneficial to have it appear as broad words.
-Again, it would be better if the exact keyword was used rather than the broad keyword,
however this is better than nothing.

The Anatomy of a Bookmark

Title:
One of the most important pieces of a bookmark. This should be our primary keyword
for the page. On the social bookmarking sites, this title will be used as anchor text for
our backlinks.
If possible, it's recommended to vary the anchor text for your backlinks, because it looks
unnatural if ALL backlinks to a page are identical. Search engines can tell that grey/
black-hat SEO techniques were used rather than the white-hat natural human-driven
backlinking progression that they are designed to appreciate.

With this in mind, if doing manual bookmarking, make sure to occasionally use different
titles, ideally using other keywords that appear on your page.

Address
The full URL of the page being bookmarked.

Description
A paragraph describing the webpage, from the point of view of a visitor (not yourself).
Like the title, you should also use SPIN syntax for the description, if possible. It leaves
a giant “footprint” for search engines if every single bookmark description is identical.

Tags
Short, popular words that help describe the page. We want to use the most general,
non-specific words as possible, because our bookmarks will appear on these “tag”
pages, and the more popular the words, the more popular and high- PR these pages
will be. Five tags is a good number to aim for.

Category
Not all social bookmarking sites have this field, but if they do just select the most
appropriate choice. Categories are similar in concept to tags, as they allow bookmarks
to be organized and grouped together.

Why Social Bookmarking is so Powerful
There are many other off-page SEO techniques used by internet marketers.

[25]

The reasons we love social bookmarking and find it so effective compared to other
methods, are:
-Rather than just a single page and backlink being created when you submit a
bookmark, multiple pages are created:
➢for each tag
➢for the category
➢on the user's bookmarks page
➢on the home page (briefly)
➢on the “popular bookmarks” page (potentially)

-We get human traffic from the sites themselves, as users often browse
the bookmarks for topics (tags) they're interested in
-Search engines love 'em
-It's easy to do and much less time consuming than other methods
-It's ideal for automation

Tips & Tricks

Some tips and tricks for more effective social bookmarking are:
-Don't post more than 5 of so bookmarks to your accounts per day.
We've found that more than this increases the chances that the account will
be considered “spamming” and be banned.

-Don't only bookmark your own domain(s).
It's easy for the social bookmarking sites and search engines to recognize a “self-
promoter” and you risk being banned or ignored. Mix it up and add other sites, possibly
even popular ones like Facebook, Twitter, CNN.com, etc.

-Use unique usernames at each site.
It leaves a footprint for the search engines to easily recognize if multiple
links to the same website are coming from the same accounts.

[26]

Twitter
Twitter used to be a simple way for people to stay in touch via cell phones. But it has
become so much more than that. For some people it has become the new Google, a
relevant, instantly available Search Engine that delivers fantastic content in real time.
It's success is astounding. Founded in 2006, it is now the fastest growing social site on
the web, and is hotter than Facebook.

It is a controversial site. Some marketers ignore it, and think itʼs a complete waste of
time. Others think it's the "missing link" that will solve all their problems, and for many,
it's simply an interesting, but time wasting diversion. But if you can get past the drama,
misinformation, and overly hyped pitches, Twitter is, without any doubt, a viable,
important, and powerful marketing tool that any responsible marketer should be using
every single day.

Here at the Social Marketing Blackbox "Sand Box," we have put all the emotional
baggage aside, and dived into Twitter in every way possible. We've tried bots, multiple
accounts, and a variety of "tricks" and gimmicks. We've pushed the limits, and blown up
more than one Twitter account in our efforts to explore this service from every angle,
and bring you only proven methods that will work long term. What you'll ﬁnd in this guide
are time tested, proven, effective strategies that you can use with conﬁdence.

The Value Of A Network

What is a network worth? If you have a massive mailing list, for example, and you are
trying to sell it, educated buyers will ask two questions:

How big is it?
How responsive is it?

And if you have a big, responsive list, itʼs worth MILLIONS of dollars.

My friend Ryan has a big e-mail list. If I would like him to mail a single letter promoting
my offer to his list, he charges $6,000. His list is an asset worth millions of dollars.

Another type of network is a radio station. In the U.S., a 10,000 reach radio station in a
town of about 200,000 people is worth any where from $3-15 million dollars!

[27]

In marketing, the bigger and more responsive your network is, the more money you
make. And the more ways you can reach out to your network, the better.

The internet used to be a “one to many” application. But now a lot of the big time
marketers out there are scared, because with the emergence of Facebook, Youtube,
and Twitter, Social Media has arrived and the whole web 2.0 experience is a “many to
many” thing, and a lot of people are scared to death because of it. If you have a lousy
offering, it exposes you. If you have a good offering, it promotes you.

Hopefully, these new shifts in the marketing world donʼt scare you at all, but get you
excited. Suddenly, for the ﬁrst time ever, an independent marketer has access to the
worlds media, to create their own network, and build their OWN massive list!

Twenty years ago to have a signiﬁcant marketing reach you had to have a lot of money.
Television, Radio and Newspaper advertising were the mediums of choice, and only big
business got to play.

Not anymore! Welcome to the world of Twitter and social media, where anybody with a
brain, some desire, and a good offer can build a massive Tribe of followers, and market
in countries that were impossible to access before.

So strap in, and prepare yourself for a great ride, because Twitter is one of the fastest
growing giants in the Social Marketing space, and you are on the cutting edge!

[28]

Getting Started With Twitter.com

Go to twitter.com and open an account. Use a real picture, unless you are opening an
account for a corporate entity, in which case, use the logo. If you are an independent
distributor or network marketer, do not use a logo or product picture, use your own
picture. An avatar is acceptable as well, as long as itʼs a representation of what you
really look like.

IMPORTANT! Grab your Twitter “real estate” now! People are gobbling up Twitter I.D.ʼs
like crazy, and if youʼre not careful, your name will be gone before you know it.

Are you a victim of Twitter Squatting? If you're not careful, you will be. Twitter is one of
the fastest growing social sites on the planet, and usernames are disappearing fast.
Even if you're not a "guru", another person with your name or favorite username can
easily beat you to the punch and deny your twitter position.

According to PC World, "Is there evidence of Twitter squatting (squitting?) Let's check.
Yup, every single-letter TwitID is taken. Some are legitimate (Check out "S" for instance,
that is a cool personal email assistant service) but X, Y, and Z are place holders. How
about common words? Garage, wow, war, warcraft, Crisco, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, and
Chevrolet are all taken. My guess is that Twitter squatters have grabbed all of these in
the hopes that they will be worth selling in the not too distant future. Of course the
legitimate holders of brands can sue for them and Twitter can just turn them over if
asked. But, because the investment and risk for the squatter is zero, you are going to
see the rapid evaporation of available Twitter IDs."

So jump in now, and register your name, for example, if your name is “Joe Blow” go get
twitter.com/joeblow. If thatʼs not available, here are some variations:

joe_blow
joe-blow
joe-j-blow (the “j” would be a middle initial, obviously, if your middle name is Bob you
would replace the “j” with a “b.”
joeblow1 (if thatʼs not available, raise the number!)

Hopefully you get the point. All of these usernames have one thing in common: they
contain the ﬁrst and last name. For getting ranked on Google for your name, thatʼs very
important.

[29]

Twitter allows multiple accounts, so once you have your name, go back and grab
others.

If you feel that somebody is purposely “Squatting” on your name or business name, you
can dispute it. Hereʼs the text directly from Twitterʼs Terms Of Service:

User name squatting is against the Twitter Rules

Name squatting and "user name for sale" accounts will be permanently suspended.
Attempts to sell or extort other forms of payment in exchange for user names will result
in account suspension. Accounts that are inactive for more than 6 months may be
removed without further notice. Twitter is not currently releasing inactive/squatter
accounts unless in cases of infringement. (Hint: no updates/proﬁle image on an account
or no intent to mislead usually = no infringement. )

What constitutes user name squatting?

Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is
considered to be name squatting are:

* the number of accounts created
* creating accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account
names
* creating accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts
* using feeds of third-party content to update and maintain accounts under the names
of those third parties

Mass account creation and inactive accounts

Mass account creation is a spam violation and is against the Twitter Rules. Accounts
created in a serial fashion will be suspended, and user names will no longer be
available.
User names for sale

Selling free user names is against the Twitter Rules. If someone has tried to sell you a
Twitter user name, please let us know.
News feed accounts

While we welcome news feed accounts for third party content on Twitter, using news
feed accounts to hold third party user names is considered squatting. If someone is
using a newsfeed to squat on your company's user name, you may be entitled to that

[30]

user name; if your case of user name squatting involves impersonation or trademark,
please consult those policies.

How do I report a squatter?
To report user name squatting, send a reply to @twitter with the user name of the
squatter:

@twitter the @xstalashoe proﬁle is a squatter

Make sure to include the word 'squatter' in your tweet so we'll ﬁnd it fast!

So if you think thereʼs a squatter out there with some of your intellectual property, just
follow the instructions and hopefully they will be able to resolve it for you.

[31]

Fill Out A Complete, Compelling Profile

Twitter is about putting yourself out there. Itʼs an opportunity to shine your
light into the world, whether itʼs your marketing light, or a charity or non-
profit, or a political message you want to share. Twitter allows you to have
a reach and influence that can easily span the globe.

But beware, hereʼs the symbol of “online loser” on Twitter
This is the symbol that gets used by default by somebody who
hasnʼt taken the time to set up a complete profile. Donʼt promote
your Twitter profile until you have it complete! It doesnʼt have to
be perfect (youʼll always be tinkering with it) but at LEAST up load
a good pic, and fill out the personal info.

You donʼt have much room to write out your profile, so keep it brief, but
unique. A mix of professional with some personality works well. For
example, hereʼs my profile:

If I was starting all over again, I would focus my energy on my actual name,
twitter.com/davesherwin, but when I set up my Twitter account I used my
business name and nick-name, escapethematrix. I would recommend you
use your name as well.

Notice the Bio, short and sweet, with a little bit of humor in the “all round
swell guy” thing. If you can be professional with Twitter, but also have fun,
youʼll have more success than if you are too “businessy,” or only fun with
no business references at all.

[32]

Add A Cool Background

Customizing your Twitter page sets you apart. And itʼs part of your personal branding.
Itʼs well worth taking the time to do.

There are three sites where you can do this easily, for free, or pay extra for more
customization:

Twitbacks.com Free and paid versions

Twitterbacks.com Free photoshop images that you can edit (if you have the software)

Twitterimage.com Professional designs for $100. If youʼre more serious about your
image, this is the place.

You may want to create an Avatar of yourself. I paid an artist for mine, and it has come
in handy many times, as a proﬁle pic, as well as for a custom image on Twitter.

[33]

How to get followers

The first quest of a new Twitter user is to add followers who are interested in the same
topics as they are. Once youʼve exhausted your personal and professional contacts,
where do you go from there? The way most people take is the one described above,
where you search Twitter for your interests and add people based on those interests.

As you can see from this screen shot, when you click on “Find People” in Twitter you
have four options:

Find On Twitter. With this feature you can search by username, first or last name to
find specific people.

Find On Other Networks. This feature allows you to invite people to follow you from
your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, or MSN accounts. Highly recommended. These
people already know you, why not let Twitter work itʼs magic and invite these people into
your Twitter world?!

Invite By Email. This function allows you to paste in a bunch of e-mail addresses
manually and let Twitter send invites.

Suggested Users. This controversial feature “suggests” people you may be interested
in following. Why is it controversial? Because it favors certain users based on Twitters
criteria. Personally, I like it. There are some cool people and companies in there, have a
look through it and see what you think.

[34]

As far as other methods of getting followers, check out this article by Darren Rowse at
ProBlogger. Here are some tips from the pros:

Since starting to use Twitter more regularly Iʼve been asked by quite a few readers for
tips on how to grow the numbers of Twitter Followers. Today Iʼm going to give a few tips
on how Iʼve grown my own Twitter Follower numbers up over 5500 in the last few
months:

1. Leverage Other Profiles

Do you have an existing online profile somewhere outside of Twitter (big or small)? Use
it to springboard into Twitter. If itʼs a blog, mention that youʼre using Twitter in a post and
link to it from your profile and contact pages. If youʼre on Facebook use one of the
numerous tools available to drag in your Tweets to facebook. Add it to your email
signature, business card, mention it in interviews or guest posts that you might do….
etc. The same applies with any online (or even offline) presence that you have - link to
your Twitter page and link to it often (if youʼd like to connect with me on Twitter my feed
is here).

2. Tweet and Tweet Often - But Create Space for Reactions

The more active you are on Twitter the more likely you are to have someone find you
from within Twitter and add you as someone that they are following. Every Tweet you do
comes up on the Twitter Public Timeline - so upping your Tweet numbers can help have
you appear more often there.

Warning - Tweet too regularly and about nothing worthwhile and you run the risk of
losing followers. What Iʼve found is that on days that Iʼm more talkative than others that
there can come points where Iʼm talking so much that my followers donʼt have room to
respond. Twitter can actually become quite confusing once you have too many trains of
thought going all at once so I try to stick to one topic at a time and create pauses
between them to let others interact.

3. Be Conversational

Apart from a good influx of new followers when I announced I was using Twitter at first
the days that I get most new followers are those days that I interact with other Twitter
users. Every time you reply to someone and have them reply to you your Twitter ID
appears in the feeds of others which exposes you to potentially thousands upon
thousands of other Twitter users. Asking questions is perhaps the best way to get
conversational on Twitter. Get 10 people to answer a question youʼve Tweeted and if

[35]

even just one person signs up from each of those 10 peopleʼs replies to you you have
10 new followers. Just as important is to participate in other peopleʼs Tweets also - reply
to their questions and ideas as much as possible.

The key with this approach is to be conversational about topics that will interest others.
For example if you ask a very general question like ʻwhat cereal do you useʼ and get a
lot of answers - but i suspect youʼll get more answers AND new followers if the question
was more relevant to peopleʼs lives in some way (read on for more on this).

Another thought on the ʻart of conversationʼ on Twitter is that I find I do better when Iʼm
not talking about me. No one likes to hang around with people who just talk about
themselves - so get the balance right between talking about yourself and talking about
others and other topics of interest.

4. Provide Value

Tweeting on a personal level is fun and for many thatʼs as far as it goes - but if youʼre
interested in growing your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers (and
potential followers) with value. Itʼs the same principle as growing a blog - if you help
enhance peopleʼs lives in some way they are more likely to want to track with you and
read more of what you have to say. As a result your conversations should ʻmatterʼ on
some level. Sure you can throw in personal tweets and have some fun with it - but
unless youʼre providing something useful to people (information, entertainment, news,
education etc) they probably wonʼt follow you for long.

5. Tweet in Peak Times

Last week I tracked when I had new twitter followers add me and found (as I expected)
that the frequency of ʻaddsʼ where made during business hours in the USA. My being
situated in Australia can have some positives and negatives but one of the things I donʼt
enjoy about it is that I miss out on a lot of interaction with my followers who are on the
other side of the world from me. I try to be online when the US wakes up (evenings for
me) so as to make the most of the opportunities of being awake in this overlap time
(similarly first thing in the morning for me can be good as my US friends are sometimes
still at work or online at home in their early evenings). Tweeting during these times only
increases the chances of someone finding you and adding you as someone to follow.

Other Strategies For Increasing Your Follower Base

When it comes to number of followers, quantity isnʼt everything. As a matter of fact,
plenty of Twitter faithfuls have huge lists of people who donʼt pay any attention to them.

[36]

A small, responsive following is much better than a large unresponsive following. Itʼs like
e-mail lists, you can buy a list of a million names for ﬁfty bucks. But itʼs a useless, beat
up list thatʼs been re-sold hundreds of times, and everybody on that list wishes they
could get off. So just because somebody says they have a million people on their list
doesnʼt mean a thing if they arenʼt permission based, and requested to get info.

The same holds true on Twitter. Quality counts. So here are some strategies for getting
high quality followers through natural methods:

✓Include your Twitter address in your e-mail signature
✓Put Twitter tools on your blog. See the section on Blog Tools earlier in this guide
✓Put your Twitter ID on the signature of forums you belong to
✓Include it in your Squidoo and Hubpages sites
✓Use the Twitter integration provided by most article directories

Bonus Tip

These are some of the things that Iʼve noticed about my own Twitter follower numbers. I
probably should add that for me itʼs never really been a concerted effort. I do have the
advantage of being able to do #1 quite well quite naturally but my last tip would be to
just be yourself and Tweet form the heart. Donʼt stress too much about the numbers but
connect genuinely with the Twitter followers you already have and let the rest take care
of itself!

[37]

Twitter Is A Micro-Blog

Everything you type into twitter is permanent. You might want to think about that before
you enter something you donʼt want your mother to read! The fantastic part of the
permanent nature is that it gets indexed by the search engines.

And note what the Wall Street Journal said:

“Youʼre A Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well.”

Ouch. Now, is that true? Are you really a “nobody” if you donʼt show up well on Google?
Well, not spiritually, or socially, or to your Grandma. But in the world of business,
unfortunately, if people canʼt ﬁnd you on Google it is a deﬁnite strike against you.

Being active on Twitter, and including your name in your Twitter ID, gives you a great
shot at being ranked on Google for your name.

There are 10 Other simple ways you can get your name to “Google” well, check out this
video on Youtube.

[38]

So How Does It Work?

It all starts with you following somebody. It helps if you follow people with similar
interests. For example, if youʼre marketing a health product, you may want to follow
people interested in health, or a certain sport, or weight loss, etc. More on how to find
those folks later.

Many times, if you follow somebody, they will follow you back. You can always
“unfollow” them if you donʼt like what they have to say (and they can also unfollow you if
you are spammy or boring or... fill in the blank)

Itʼs important to note that if you follow somebody whoʼs not currently online, thereʼs a
17% chance that theyʼll follow you back. But if you follow somebody who is online,
thereʼs an 80% chance. So being actively engaged for at least a few minutes a day, and
finding active people, will greatly improve the effectiveness of building your follower
base.

To remove somebody, simply go to their profile page on Twitter; you may do this by
clicking on their name. Click the arrow beside “Following” just below the top of their
profile page and then click “Remove”.

[39]

A Cool Tool To Aid Your Twitter Marketing

Before you start using Twitter
as part of your marketing and
out reach efforts, I highly
recommend budurl as a link-
shrinking and tracking
service. Remember, you only
have 140 characters to write
in, so shrinking your URLʼs
saveʼs precious space.

Also, each URL can be identiﬁed and tracked. So every shrunken URL is monitored in
your budurl back ofﬁce, so you can see exactly how many times it was clicked on.

Pro tip: When you create your URL, you have a choice of 301 or 307 redirect. Always
choose the 301, for Search Engine Optimization purposes. If you donʼt know what that
means, donʼt worry, just trust me on this one! Get it free at: http://budurl.com

[40]

Tweetdeck
"
To post micro blogs, or “Tweets,” simply go to your own proﬁle page and type under the
question, “What are you doing?” This is a skill you should know, but itʼs not the way we
want you to do it. Hereʼs one of the coolest twitter tools out there, and a better way to
use Twitter than Twitter itself. Itʼs called Tweetdeck, and it looks like this:

Tweetdeck is a fundamental tool for serious “Tweeters.” It displays so much more info
than the twitter page itself. Hereʼs what you can do with it:

Tweet directly from tweetdeck
View all new tweets in real time
Use columns to create your personal dashboard
Create groups to easily follow friends, colleagues or other groups of interest
Update Facebook and follow your Facebook friends
Follow topics in real-time with saved searches
View @replies and direct messages and manage your conversations
Never miss an important tweet with notiﬁcations
Share your photos and videos with Twitpic and 12seconds
Shorten URLʼs as you tweet

[41]

Install Tweetdeck here.

As part of your marketing MO (method of operation) I would recommend that you spend
a few minutes here and there throughout the day reviewing whatʼs happening in the
Twitterverse.

Open up Tweetdeck, and scan what your friends are posting. Here are some some
things you can (and should!) do:

1. Respond to interesting, inspiring, controversial, or otherwise interesting Tweets.
There are two ways to do this:

Direct Message. If the person is following you, you can send them a Direct Message.
This is a private message only they can see.

Reply. This is a direct response to their Tweet, but is public, everybody else can see it.

Chooose your method of response, and spend a few minutes interacting with others.
Youʼll meet some great people, learn some new things, and make solid connections
doing this.

2. Learn. A lot of people give out valuable information on Twitter. News, reports, great
blog entries, recommendations, criticisms... all of these things can teach you new
things, introduce you to new opportunities, and generally keep you informed.
Knowledge really is power, and Twitter is a fast, fun, simple way to share and find
knowledge.

3. Tweet! After scanning other peoples Tweets, the juices will flow and youʼll get a
thought or an idea to share. Tweet away!
4. Re-tweet. If you see something great on Twitter and want to share it with your users,
itʼs really easy!

Give Your Followers Value

In the social marketing world, people get to choose whether to follow you or not. Your
“Tribe” can be fickle, and youʼre only one click away from being deleted! Harsh? No, just
reality. The up-side is that most of your competitors arenʼt doing it right, so it doesnʼt
take much to become a valued member of your community and build a following.

[42]

UNWRITTEN RULE: Avoid sending people directly to a sales page! Think of Twitter like
one big PARTY! Mingle, have fun, and yes, network. But nobody likes the person whoʼs
all business at a party. Remember, people buy from those they know, like and trust.

So a fantastic way bring them into your world naturally is to send them to your blog first.
Itʼs more personal, you can choose exactly the right content to promote, and itʼs a
friendlier, less “salesy” place.

Include an offer or give-away at your blog, something that they can choose to opt in for.

One interesting aspect of web 2.0 (the interactive web, as opposed to the old sites
where you couldnʼt interact of leave comments) is that as marketers we focus a lot of
our energy with Social Media (web 2.0) with the intent of building our very web 1.0 e-
mail list! Itʼs a paradox, but the fact remains that building a massive e-mail list is still a
very important goal, and should be an important focus of all your marketing.

So find ways to drive traffic to your opt-in pages, where you can grab their e-mail
address in exchange for a book or free report.

If you are an independent marketer, and donʼt have a true, hosted blog (blogger.com
and other free blogs arenʼt going to cut it!) We can build one for you very inexpensively
at the Social Marketing Blackbox.

Tweets: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly!

Here are some examples of good and bad tweets to get the juices flowing: (the URLʼs
have been modified to protect the innocent)

Bad: Twitter is Hot This is Hotter!!! http://budurl.com/hot-new-site (not a real link)

Good: Can this site REALLY compete with Twitter? http://budurl.com/blog/hot-new-site
(not a real link)

See the difference? Both “tweets” are inviting you to do the exact same thing: check out
a site. But the first person is selling, the second person is inviting. Subtle, but powerful.
Also, in the first example the person is sending directly to a sales page, but in example
two they have written their own blog post about “hot new site.” Itʼs a subtle, but powerful
difference.

Hereʼs another:

[43]

Bad: Buy the social marketing blackbox now! http://budurl.com/socialmarketingblackbox
(not a real link)

Good: Just got another front page Google ranking! Sweet! (then link to your Social
Marketing Blackbox afﬁliate link)

Again, both have the same call to action, but one is a pushy salesman, the other is
simply sharing good news. But understand that the right person will read Tweet number
two and think, “Wow! I wouldnʼt mind getting fresh leads myself.” And now you have an
interested prospect.

One more, non promotional example:

Bad: The economy sucks. My buddy Joe just lost his job, Iʼm probably next.

Good: I decided not to participate in the bad economy, the universe is conspiring to
make me successful!

Nobody wants to hear your negativity. They hear enough of that on the news, at work,
and all too often from friends and family. People want to feel good! They want to laugh,
to be motivated and inspired.

Choose to be a person who leaves a positive mark in your Social Marketing.
Remember, they often escape to the internet to get a break from challenges in their
lives. Be a voice of positivity and success, of hope and happiness. Be yourself, but be
your better self!

[44]

Methods Of Providing Valued Tweets

1. Ask questions! I was impressed by a lady who on February 13th asked “What are you
guys getting your sweethearts for Valentines?” I noticed she got a huge response. And
btw, sheʼs a very savvy marketer, she makes money on Twitter, but she doesnʼt try to
make money EVERY TWEET! Thatʼs what separates the good marketers from the bad.

2. Answer questions that your followers have.

3. Share a “Tip of the day”

4. Share helpful tips for your industry.

5. Tell a joke.

6. Share quotes.

If you provide lots of value, your followers wonʼt mind when you insert a “money tweet.”
Especially once they know, like and trust you, they will understand that you wouldnʼt
recommend anything that you havenʼt thoroughly tested and have a personal
testimonial of.

Speaking of which, make this your new marketing rule. Drill it into your brain. Make it a
commandment on a stone tablet. Whatever you have to do, but this one concept will
help your marketing efforts and keep you in long term proﬁt mode:

Never market something that you donʼt own, use, and have a personal testimonial of!

Too many people are just gloriﬁed “peddlers” in the marketplace. Donʼt join that crowd.
Only offer your prospects great products that you strongly believe in, not the “hot
product of the day.”

[45]

How Often Should I Tweet?

Tweet a few times a day, but make sure your tweets are meaningful. Nobody cars what
you just ate for lunch, unless you had a funny or unusual experience. So put some
thought into your tweets, and follow interesting tweeters, and youʼll soon get a feel for
what things you can add to the community.

If you use Tweetlater to schedule out your tweets, be sure that there is a good ratio
between “value tweets” and “money tweets.” For example, if you tweet five times a day,
only put a link to one of your money pages in one or two of them, not all five.

When is the best time to tweet?

The very best time to Tweet is when you can! Donʼt get too caught up in the exact times
of day, if you are very busy, or have a day job, donʼt sweat it. You can schedule Tweets
to happen when youʼre not available, and spend live time on Twitter when possible.

If you are more flexible, the very best time to Tweet is when your potential Tribe
members are online. For example, if youʼre in the U.S., peak times are basically during
the day throughout the work week, and weekends. But generally speaking, Tweet when
you can, and use Tweetlater.com to schedule Tweets for you if you canʼt Tweet on a
regular basis.

Some people consider Sunday evening (U.S.) the best time of all.

[46]

Tweetlater Pro

If I was only allowed one Twitter tool, this would be it. I started using Tweetlater before
they ever had the Pro version, and it was a fantastic tool then. When they added the Pro
feature, it became a real powerhouse.

There is a free and paid version. The Pro version has a trial, chances are if you try it
youʼll be hooked, but if Iʼm wrong just downgrade to the free version.

Hereʼs a screen shot of everything you get in the free version:

Hereʼs a screen shot of what you get in the paid version:

[47]


Between Tweet Deck and Tweetlater, I manage my entire Twitter experience. There are
tons of other great tools and sites (a list of those follows) but I have found that these two
tools, used in conjunction, are the core tools necessary to leverage Twitter.

[48]

Tweetlater Recommended Settings

When you set up your account, youʼll see
this screen.

Hereʼs the choices I recommend:

Auto Welcome: There are two schools of
thought on this. If you are going for natural
growth, and using Twitter as an important,
long term part of your marketing strategy, I
would recommend not sending a welcome
message at all. Because people are
getting so many messages in their in box
already, the auto welcome just becomes
another annoyance, rather than the
friendly message it is supposed to be.

On the other hand, if you are going to
really get aggressive with Twitter, and use
multiple accounts, then you may not care
about the long term consequences, or
about ticking some people off right out of
the gate, youʼre just going for the
numbers. In that case, turn this feature on,
but at least TRY to make it sound like a
welcome message (what itʼs supposed to
be!) and not a sales pitch.

Auto Follow: I would recommend
checking this. Many people unfollow those
that donʼt follow them back, so if you have
this checked you will maintain a higher
number of followers.

Vet Followers: Donʼt check this one.

Auto Unfollow: Check this. It is important to not follow many more people than are
following you. By using this automated feature, you can maintain a good balance
without much effort.

[49]

Another way to Unfollow people

If you plan on following people who you know arenʼt going to follow you back (like
celebrities, businesses, etc.), then instead of using Tweetlaters Auto Unfollow feature,
just go to:

http://huitter.com/mutuality/

Schedule Tweets

This is another feature of Tweetlater that I used extensively. I schedule out three tweets
a day, every week. One in the morning, another at noon, and a third in the evening. The
first two are always success or health quotes. I love quotes, and have found that others
do too. So I can contribute to the Twitterverse, automatically, yet provide good value,
through scheduling out quotes twice a day.

The third tweet is an invite to one of my blog posts. I keep a spread sheet of every blog
post I create, and schedule for one a day to go out on my Twitter feed. This has been a
significant source of traffic to my blog, and helped each of my entries get more
comments.

Twitter is one of the reasons why my personal blog is in the top 100,000 of all sites
online, and has helped me create and solid e-mail list of about 14,000 people.

Hereʼs a shot of the screen where you can schedule out Tweets on Tweetlater:

[50]


There are two very different schools of thought on this, one for your personal, “real”
account, and another for your automated accounts (more on that later) For your real
account, I recommend posting three tweets per day, one in the morning, one mid day,
and one in the early evening.

The first two should be what I call Value Tweets. These are quotes, tips,
recommendations, humor... anything that your Tribe would appreciate and enjoy. The
last Tweet would be a “Money Tweet.” This Tweet would include a link to one of your
blog posts or sales pages.

This simple strategy is part of what has made my blog so successful, and such a money
maker for me. Each of my posts is getting “re-purposed” on Twitter, so I get traffic to all
of my posts on a regular basis. These keeps all the posts in play, and gets me a steady
stream of traffic.

[51]

Link Your Twitter And Facebook Accounts

Your Facebook status can automatically be up-dated by Twitter. This is a very cool
feature, especially if you add valuable Tweets. For example, hereʼs one of my
automated Tweets, and how it was received in Facebook:

The names have been covered, but notice what they said? The ﬁrst person just gave it
a thumbs up. The second and third both took the time to write back and endorse the
quote. As I said before, people love quotes.

So now our Tweetlater software is automatically up-dating Twitter, which is automatically
updating Facebook, and we can enter all of those Tweets in about 20 minutes once a
week!

Itʼs a fantastic concept. Then if you add a few “natural” Tweets as well, you can have fun
with Twitter in very little time, provide value to the Twitterverse AND Facebook, and be
inviting people to your blog and money sites- all automated, and very simple to do!

Iʼm not going to go through every feature and function of Tweetlater in this guide,
because they do a ﬁne job of that at the site. Go there now and open a free account, Iʼm
sure it will become a valued part of your marketing machine!

[52]

Conclusion

I hope you got great value out of this book, and that it helps you live your dream! If you
have any questions, I check my Facebook page daily and respond to all questions:

http://facebook.com/escapethematrix

Wishing you massive success,

Dave Sherwin

http://twitter.com/escapethematrix

Take your business to the next level! All the tools, training, and cool marketing mojo you
need:

http://socialmarketingblackbox.com

[53]

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